More people are getting boosters than new COVID-19 vaccinations. And others could soon become eligible for an additional shot

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

The number of people in the US looking to boost their COVID-19 vaccinations has surpassed the tally of those looking to begin them as booster doses from more drug makers may soon be available.

There are 1.3 times as many boosters administered each day compared with first shots, data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

And the number could grow, as the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee prepares to meet Thursday to discuss booster doses for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, as well as mixing and matching boosters and original doses among the drug makers.

Until this week, only the Pfizer vaccine has been authorized for use as a booster for members of certain high-risk groups who received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at least six months ago.

A booster dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine was found to be highly effective — 95.6% — in a Phase 3 trial, the companies announced Thursday. “Efficacy was consistent irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity or comorbid conditions,” they noted.

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized booster doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and said any of the three authorized vaccines could be used as a booster in a “mix and match approach” for those eligible.

The CDC on Thursday is expected to decide which groups it recommends for boosters. Typically, shots can be administered once the CDC director signs off on the recommendation.

The FDA, pending more safety data, could also soon lower the age range on its emergency use authorizations for booster shots, officials told reporters Wednesday.

“We want to make sure that if we deploy the boosters in all of the age ranges that we truly are making a benefit outweigh any risk,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of that agency’s vaccine arm, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “We will not hesitate to drop this age range as we see this benefit outweigh the risk, and because of the EUA authority that we have, we can do that in a relatively quick amount of time.”

Health experts stress vaccination as the key to controlling the spread of COVID-19, and many are still encouraging more Americans to get their first doses.

Evidence suggests that immunity from full vaccination can wane, driving the push to authorize booster doses, acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said Wednesday.

“The currently available data suggest waning immunity in some populations of fully vaccinated people,” Woodcock told reporters during a telephone briefing. “And the availability of these authorized boosters is important for continued protection against COVID-19 disease.”

While the vaccines are still working well against severe disease, people who want optimal protection and are eligible for a booster should get one, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday on CBS.

“The good news,” he said, “is that now everything is a level playing field, those who got J&J, those who got Moderna and those who’ve gotten Pfizer, there’s availability now to get boosters for all of those people who are in those three separate groups.”

Vaccinating younger kids will play a ‘major role’ in controlling the pandemic

Younger children are still not eligible for even their first doses, but their protection will be key to bringing the pandemic under control, experts have said.

Currently, only adolescents as young as 12 are eligible for vaccines, but data has been submitted to the FDA for doses for children 5 to 11.

About 28 million children 5 to 11 could soon become eligible to get vaccinated if the FDA authorizes shots for this age group and if the CDC recommends it.

The White House on Wednesday unveiled its plans to roll out vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, pending FDA authorization.

Vaccine advisers to the FDA are scheduled to meet next week to consider Pfizer’s request to authorize its vaccine for ages 5 to 11. It would be the first COVID-19 vaccine for younger kids.

“We know millions of parents have been waiting for COVID-19 vaccine for kids in this age group. And should the FDA and (CDC) authorize the vaccine, we will be ready to get shots in arms,” White House COVID-19 response director Jeff Zients told reporters at a White House COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy talked with CNN on Thursday morning about children and the disease.

“If you look at the toll on our children, it is quite signficant,” Murthy said, noting hundreds of deaths and thousands of hospitalizations among kids and the countless interruptions of schools and activities.

Getting most children vaccinated will “play a major role” in slowing the spread, Fauci said Wednesday.

“In the era of Delta, children get infected as readily as adults do. And they transmit the infection as readily as adults do. We may not appreciate that, because about 50% of the infections in children are asymptomatic,” Fauci told a White House briefing.

“If we can get the overwhelming majority of those 28 million children vaccinated, I think that would play a major role in diminishing the spread of infection in the community,” said Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

Attendance rates for homeless students have plummeted in the pandemic

Although children have not had the highest rates of infection, they have faced many of the pandemic’s impacts. And for children without homes, there have been even more barriers.

Attendance rates of homeless students in New York City public schools have dropped significantly amid the pandemic, according to a study released this week by the Advocates for Children of New York.

The study, which used attendance data from the New York City Department of Education, documented that the average attendance rate of students in shelter during the first couple of weeks of the winter semester was 73%. The year-to-date attendance rate for students in shelters is 78.5%, according to the agency.

There are especially high rates of absenteeism at the high school level, according to the study. Tenth graders “missed more than one out of every three school days in winter and spring 2021, while 9th, 11th, and 12th graders in shelter were absent more than 25% of the time,” according to the advocacy group.

Prior to the pandemic, the average attendance rate for New York City students living in shelters during the 2019-20 school year was 83.2%, compared to 92.2% for permanently housed students, the study shows.

The nonprofit recommended that the city Department of Education should use federal COVID-19 relief funds to hire 150 shelter-based agency community coordinators as a start to “overhaul the education support system in shelters.” Community coordinators are typically responsible for providing support and resources to help students get to school.

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CNN’s Deidre McPhillips, Maggie Fox, John Bonifield, Jacqueline Howard, Naomi Thomas and Maya Brown contributed to this report.